It was an 18 mile run on Sunday. This went much better than last week's 16 miler which could have been for a number of reasons. Having spent most of the week on strike, I was nicely rested. This run didn't require four miles at race pace at the start and end so I wasn't pushing myself as much. Lastly the jelly babies were proving surprisingly controversial in the purplecat household. B. kept insisting that I shouldn't need to eat at all during the marathon, so in the end I asked for advice on the Habitica Runner's Edge group board (since it is a very small and friendly group with a big range of expertise). Ultrarobb, suggested that because the jelly babies got most of their carbohydrate from sugar, I could have been experiencing rapid blood sugar spikes and troughs. He recommended peanut butter, but *blegh!* so I invested in some gels*. So these were... well, not much worse than the jelly babies though I have some sympathy with the person who described them as like eating a gelatinous slug, albeit a fruit flavoured gelatinous slug. But they do derive most of their carbohydrate from starch rather than sugar, and I did feel better during the run so... B. remains skeptical - well he's agreed that maybe I do need to eat something, but he doesn't think it will make much difference to fluctuation in blood sugar levels.

On the downside, about two hours after the run, my digestive system reacted quite dramatically. This was not quite "Runner's Trots" (thank goodness!) but definitely quite dramatic. So I'm going to try halving the quantity I consume. Cue yet more discussion in purplecat household about energy consumption/absorption rate vs. physical size. I'm not 100% sure I understand B's science, but I'll give it a go and see what happens.

According to the plan, I was actually supposed to run a half marathon race this week (not 18 miles). However I was a week behind the plan on the long runs and the only available half marathon nearby was the Wigan Half Marathon. Now admitedly I'm sure Wigan is a lovely place** but the half started too early to get there on public transport and I didn't really fancy driving to Wigan at stupid o'clock, running a half marathon and then driving back. The downside is that I won't get any long race time to calibrate my potential marathon pace by, on the upside I'm back on plan and well, I didn't have to drive to Wigan at stupid o'clock in the morning.

Since then I've spectacularly failed to organise myself a sports' massage. alexandra.stanton reminded me about this last week and I realised I'd forgotten to ask about it at the gym. I resolved to try better this week. I was treadmilling on tuesday (so dull, but needs must) and forgot. Then I completely forgot to go to the gym at all on Wednesday and forgot to even take my gym kit to work today - something tells me I may be self-sabotaging.

KM run this week: 48.2 KM run in 2018: 388.7

* I previously referred to these as "protein gels" but the ones I bought had precisely 0g protein in them so clearly not protein gels.

** This is a grotesque lie. However I have no actual evidence that Wigan is anything other than a lovely place.

While raising money for charity is not my motivation for participation, it is a big part of the London Marathon. Shelter have bribed me with a T-shirt and the promise of a post-race massage. People have been incredibly generous already, but you can donate here should you feel so inclined.

Good distance! Amazing stuff. Awkward bowels and intake though! Hope you manage to figure something that works for you. mr fifi and our marathon-running friend were having a bit of a gel discussion on Friday. One consensus was that caffeine-containing gels are a Very Bad Thing. I imagine you can get them with a variety of composition.

The one's I have are caffeine-free, and "Isotonic" (which I think means they all include water and salt so theoretically help keep my hydrated and so on). I'm going to try jelly babies again next week - see if I think it's the gels or just the distance that is causing the bowel issues (because on Sunday I walked back though the door after my run and had to dive straight into the toilet).